Itar-Tass reports that American Science Fiction author Robert Sheckley, who has been staying in a Ukrainian clinic for a week, remains in grave condition.

Sheckley visited the Ukraine in April to attend Ukrainian Sci-Fi Computer Week and was hospitalized with a cold. His condition worsened and he is now on artificial respiration.

He is in Kiev’s private clinic Boris with the diagnosis of progressive respiratory insufficiency, the clinic’s president Mikhail Radutsky told Itar-Tass on Friday. Radutsky said the company that had arranged Sheckley’s visit to the Ukraine sent the clinic a letter guaranteeing the payment for medical services.

Robert Sheckley has written scores of novels and hundreds of short stories. When Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America honored Sheckley as Author Emeritus in 2001, then President of SWFA Paul Levinsons said that Sheckley's "writing helped our genre grow up by giving it an irresistible sense of humor."

Posted May 5, 2005